Never in a million years did we ever consider this. We never imagined a world where we'd be smack dab in the middle of the NFL Draft's third day and discussing the great Shedeur Sanders robbery. Apparently, the New York Giants didn't want him. The Philadelphia Eagles decided they were sort of interested, and the Cleveland Browns stole him by jumping ahead of Philly on the draft board.
Welcome to NFL Draft coverage. This is how these things go sometimes.
This is an interesting pivot, one so strange, it will take hours or maybe even days to dissect. How did the reigning and defending Super Bowl champions enter the Shedeur Sanders sweepstakes? Might Coach Prime have to eat his words now that his baby boy is a Brown?
Here's an even better question. How real was Philly's interest in the former Jackson State Tiger/Colorado Buffalo? How in the heck were they going to add him to this roster?
Doesn't the Tanner McKee angle all but dismiss any theory that the Eagles really wanted Shedeur Sanders?
Let's discuss Tanner McKee for a second. You guys remember Tanner McKee, don't you? QB2 of the Philadelphia Eagles? Yes... It should all be coming back now... The guy from Stanford... What would have been the plan for him?
Let's take some inventory here. Philly wasn't placing Shedeur Sanders on the depth chart over him.
Tanner was a sixth-round selection by the Eagles in the 2023 NFL Draft. He's spent time behind Marcus Mariota and Kenny Pickett on the depth chart, in 2023 and 2024 respectively. It was the strangest thing because, since his arrival, McKee ALWAYS looked better than both of them.
As a matter of fact, it was McKee's maturation that made it so easy for the Birds to swap Pickett out for Dorian Thompson-Robinson, so that brings us back to Sanders. At best, had he come to Philly, he'd be competing with DTR to be the backup's backup.
Why spend a fifth-rounder on that? Frankly, we can only come up with two theories that make sense.
The first is this. Philly was going to draft Shedeur Sanders and use Tanner McKee as trade bait. Yeah, that's an argument. We refuse to believe that, so here's what we have. Frankly, it's the only thing we have.
Philly intended to draft Sanders, give him a quick makeover in the quarterback factory, and pawn him off to some needy team.
We know this is Jalen Hurts' team. Sanders never had a snowball's chance in hell of starting for the Eagles, and we don't even think he'd have beaten out Tanner to become the backup. So, let's say the best-case scenario was someone did call Philly to inquire about a trade. What might Philly gain for his services? A fifth-round draft choice to recoup the one the Eagles gave up to take him in the first place?
Potential media circus... Constant questioning and distractions over a player who was never going to play in a game that counts... Yeah, we're out on that.
We can't say Philly wasn't interested because that doesn't seem to be the case, but here's where we all can agree. The Eagles organization won't lose much sleep after being upstaged by the Browns for Shedeur's services.
And, what do you know? As soon as we wrap this one and get it ready for publishing, the Eagles spend the 181st pick on QB Kyle McCord from Syracuse. You can't make this stuff up!